JONAH'S
PRAYER
OF
DESPERATION
Robert De Corah
Speaker 1:
My name is Robert De C Corah and I'm with Three Feathers Ministry. Well, Jonah chapter
one, we see Jonah arriving
in the belly of a great fish, or Jesus would call it a whale. And the gospel, Matthew 12 in chapter two, we're going to find that great fish up, trucks him on shore. Now heading for his destination in chapter three, we'll discover Jonah arrives at his destination fulfilling God's plan for his life. And in then chapter four, instill a sour, bitter angry attitude, and
it'S A PRAYER OF DESPERATION
and that's what I liked my message titled to be. He cried.
He said by reason of mine affliction onto theLORD and the man said, don't hold responsible Lord. As we throw Jonah off the ship there, Jonah went flying into the air. Hurricane force type winds. Jonah hit that water thinking I'm going to drown. I'm going to die. As he sunk into the deep of the water, There was a person in the 18 hundreds who had been swallowed. He was whaling and he got pulled overboard and they thought they'd lost him until the next day they harpoon a whale pulling and shore or up to their boat, began to gut it. THERE HE WAS in shock, pass down, yellow skin, brown skin, blotchy, all over the points. They managed to revive him. And then they put them on display in London as the modern Jonah.
And maybe you heard it on the news this past year or so, or a diver was diving and he was doing his work UNDER water. And all of a sudden he felt a bump and nudge. And all of a sudden everything went black and he says, am I in a shark And he reached there no teeth. And he says, oh, I'm in a whale. And so there is freaking out. Everything's black, he's in his diver suit with his tanks on. And he's trying to thrash about trying to get out of that. Well, pretty soon that whole whales, this head's going side to side to side. And then he goes, thrown out through.
Jonah had to been freaking out a place
where once he slept in the bottom of the ship, now he's willing to cry out in prayer. It may be that's where you're at at a place of brokenness. And this is self-righteous sitting there on your hunches no longer serving Jesus, no longer going to church, very much a critic, able to tell everything that's wrong with everybody else. What's wrong with the church. But the problem is you. And I know why Jonah.
Speaker 1: He no longer heard God's voice. My pastor Jesse mentioned having a squabble with one of his children. For times you end up saying, you can go to your room now. And that's exactly what happened to Jonah. You can go to your room. now; you can go into whale. You want to run, go ahead and run. But he says by reason of my infliction, and it is often the affliction that God disciplines us because he loves us. Let me ask you a question. You're saying, well, that's kind of harsh with Robert, but here's what is sad. I know, you know, Jesus, I know you know God . You get no argument from me. What would I do now As your children, weren't brought up in the church like you, your grandkids have not gone to church l ike you, they're not heard familiar Bible story. They had no concept of who Jesus is. They have no underpinning of their faith. And just as Jonah was hurting the sailor. So we're hurting our family. We're hurting our friends and Jonah went on to say in his desperate cry out of the belly, a Sheol cried I, and you heard my voice. Sheol in the old Testament is interpreted two ways, out of hell or the graveyard. The place of the dead. You may have come to the point in your life where you're willing to take her life. I hope you'll hold
on!
Speaker 1: You may have died literally and been brought back as they put the paddles on you. But there's a reason you're here. There's a reason Jonah heard a cry was heard out of Sheol. You cast me into deep in the midst of the sea the flood compassed me about all your billows and our ways passed over. And I said, I'm cast out of your sight. Yet again, I will look toward your holy temple, the water compassed me about. Even to my soul, the depth closed me round about the weeds were wrapped around my head. I went down to the bottom of the mountains. The earth with her bars were about me forever. Yet that has brought my life up from corruption. What a miserable place to be sloshing around inside of a great fish. What's troubling you? There might even be a daughter or son who got so strung out on crack or some other drug that you got to get in rehab. There's a spiritual principle that I've observed in life. Jonah's prayer was help me, but there's a principle that he's conveying. He cried out to the LORD! ,
Speaker 1: A person who was alcoholic told me, you know what I asked Jesus in my heart. I said, Jesus would deliver me. He said, when I was not delivered to my alcoholism, he says, I stayed angry at Jesus f or 20 years. Somebody asked me, have you ever made Jesus Lord of your life? He said, no, I have not. And he talked to me further about it. And he thought to himself, I need to do that. He did that. He says when I did that, that is when I was free from my alcoholism. You got to make Jesus Lord.
The second thing you need to do is like, Jonah, confess your mess. God, I was blessed, but now I'm in a mess. Here's what's happening and tell them exactly what's going on with your life, with your children, with your family, with your work, with your house, anything that's going on in your life. Get on talking terms with him. You heard me, you heard me. You heard me. And the last thing is not only should it be Lord, not only need to confess your sins that are believed that the devil has many of us in bondage. The final thing is II Corinthians chapter 10, as Paul says
Speaker 1: That our warfare is not against flesh and, but it's spiritual. And it's mighty to the pulling down of strongholds casting, every thought and imagination. If your head is so screwed up, if your heart is so messed up, you need to cast it down. He didn't get an word of God, but in casting down that strong hole, you say, Jesus, not only forgive my sins, but whatever place Satan has in my life, in my heart and my emotions in my mind to cause me to
go with straight and cause me to fall time and time again in the name of Jesus made the blood of Jesus cleanse me. Take this strong hold out of my heart, out of my soul, out of my spirit, out of my mind, out of my family. May I not be destroyed
every thought into the obedience of Christ. And this is where Jonah was making a decision that would forever change his life and the lives of those around him. But he was called a minister to, it was a prayer of desperation. And now it's a prayer of repentance. Jonah two verse seven says when my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came in onto me into the on holy temple.
Speaker 1: Sure. I told you about DL moody. He was touched by God. He'd been used milghtly by God. And as he got older, as he's coming back from Europe to the United States, he said to his son and to other people I give up, my ministry is done. I'll never preach again. Much like Jonah h e experienced a great hurricane as ship was going every which way. And it looked like the ship was in danger of going down and he cried out for the Lord. He says, Lord, there's a hurricane. There's a storm. We're going to die. And the Lord says, well, do you want to come home?.
Speaker 2: I
Speaker 1: Want to come home right now. This is, well, what difference would it make You're not going to preach. Just come home. This is where I want to come on. My son's with me. This is I'm sorry. This is you making decisions that affects other people, you know. D.L. Moody wrestled in his heart, wrestled with the Lord
Speaker 1: And finally said to him, Lord, whatever Your will is if you want me to preach I'll serve you the till the day I die. D. L. Moody had made a prior commitment to be the man of God who would be used of God, like no other man on earth. But here he had wavered in the storm ceased and he got home. The rest. Paul Harvey said the rest of the stories. This really got back to Chicago within a year or two, the Chicago fair happened and he preached daily. They're given all for calls during the Chicago. World's fair. And he saw some of the greatest harvests he'd ever experienced in his life having preached to 100,000,000 during his lifetime. God is not through with you. And God has a purpose for you and your children, your wife, your daughter, your son. You're going to sit home and let him slide to hell. They don't observe lying vanities, forsake their own mercy.
Speaker 1: They would have another idol in their life for sake, mercy. If you lie to yourself and I do good guy ministry, which is police. I do halfway ministry or bad guy ministry, which are people in prison & in jail. I've been a pastor 30 years. I've been a chaplain, of a travel, a country visiting 52 Reservations.
I remember in a halfway house group of men just sitting there. One of the men happened to poke another guy and said, you tell that preacher, what you think. So the other guy says, well, you know what he said jI really don't care w hat you have to say. I said, oh, oh, why? I f I want to drink, I'll drink. I said, okay. I said, every time he drank, he ended up in jail. Right Well, so? And I said, are you married He says, yes.
Speaker 1: I said, so let's play you game. Now you're in jail. You're now in a halfway house, you made promises to your wife. I'll guarantee you, you promised your wife, you straighten up your life. You be just as real with her. When you get home, as you are with me, I want you to take a six pack or a case of beer, walking to the door, say to your wife, I'm going to get drunk. I'm a grown man. And you can't tell me what to do. And I said, is she going to do is welcome. You her jail bird drunk home. I mean, his face is melting. I said, let's be real with each other.
Speaker 1: They observed Lying vanity, forsake, their own mercy.
Speaker 1: And his PRAYER of repentance. He made some decisions, but I'll sacrifice onto the, with the voice of Thanksgiving, a grateful heart. When you find the joy of the Lord again in your life, you begin to thank God. Thank you God for forgiving me. Thank you God, for not giving up on me. Thank you Lord, for helping me. Thank you Lord f or restoring me. I tell you what I'd seen broken families and I've grabbed the family and hugged them. And I said, you know, God's going to restore you. God's going to be with you. And they've said that simple act of love. Let us know that God was with us and forgave us. I will pay that, which I vowed.
Speaker 1:
Mariners, made a vow.
Now Jonah made of vow. God, if you give me all this way out of this mess I'll go to Nineveh. Salvation is of the Lord! That's the bottom line.
Speaker 1: That's
Speaker 1: what first saves you, Lord Jesus f orgive me. Thank you for dying on the cross for being raised from the dead. I want you to be my Lord and savior. Now, does he save your soul But he can save you as far as your life. He means to turn you into a holy person who loves him, who loves others. Salvation is of the Lord. He can get you out of that mess. Who's going to save you? It's obvious you got in it. Probably y ou're not getting it out of it unless God intervenes. Salvation is of the Lord. So we see a prayer of desperation. We see a prayer of repentance. And lastly, we see answered prayer. And the Lord spoke onto the fish and it vomited out
Jonah upon dry land. It is hard to stomach a backslidden
person s o self-righteous, You need to be spit out. You need to be changed. You realize when you hit the ground, you need to be cleaned up and ready to roll. Now on dry ground, lickety split, heading for Nineveh.
Speaker 1: He ended up in the fish chapter one, he ends up onto the fish chapter two. Now going to fulfill the will of God. And that's where you need to be willing to fulfill the will of God. You're life changed and other's life changed! May God bless you in Jesus name. Amen.
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